ProofPilot, a platform for designing and managing research studies, released new features to ease the creation and replication of randomized, controlled trials.

"We kept hearing from all sorts of different people, 'no one will run this a study on my question, or these results are from far away and aren’t applicable to my community," ProofPilot CEO Matthew Amsden said in a statement. “People want to run studies on digital health devices, fitness regimes, dietary changes, alternative wellness efforts, social service programs ... they are frustrated that they can’t point to research studies that prove the efficacy of these tools within the varied communities that make up our society."

The company introduced the Study Template feature, which reduces barriers for those outside the pharmaceutical industry and academia to run scientifically valid studies.

Users can select from options based on previously completed scientifically valid efforts and quickly tailor them for their own research questions and launch to participants.

To that end, ProofPilot is launching the feature with ten templates, and expects to rapidly ramp up with participation by some of its key academic customers. The template feature combines research replication with a concept called Community Based Participatory Research or CBPR. Organizations and institutions closer to the interests of potential participants tailor the templates to make them more relevant and engaging.

All regulatory and ethical review of studies will automatically be conducted by Veritas IRB of Montreal. This practice ensures studies run outside traditional pharma and academic settings are conducted in accordance to the highest ethical standards.

Veritas IRB President Janice Parente added that the partnership will enable ProofPilot’s platform to work with active and responsible research contributors.

When a study designer is satisfied with their study, she added, it will undergo a rigorous yet efficient ethical review. Such review can take as little as three days depending on the nature of the trial.

In November, ProofPilot announced customers including NYU’s Langone Medical Center and Columbia University’s Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center and finished up major studies with the University of Kentucky.